Life in the Horde
by Joseph the Weasel
Summary: An alternate viewpoint of Outcast of Redwall
1. The Draft

Life in the Horde Chapter 1  
Rumors said that Swartt had poisoned Bowfleg, but these ideas were quickly dismissed by the power hungry warlord. Families had to pack their bags as they followed the cruel ferret into the unknown.  
Jonbuck the stoat and his wife Madison, were farmers for the horde, they had two children, a very young girl named Jenna and a full grown male named Shawn.

Jenna was very young; she was too young to work. All Jenna liked to do was play with her dolls that her older brother had made for her. Shawn was a rather dark furred stoat, he enjoyed working.

Jonbuck was very upset that they had to move from where they currently lived, but he did not want to endanger his family by disobeying. Shawn was drafted to the hordes soldiers, Madison tried to stop the soldiers from taking him away, but one of the soldiers, armed with a stave knocked her out. When she awoke, she saw her husband stroking her face softly, he was crying.

"are you okay." He said, "you were hit in the head really hard, and I thought that maybe you were-" he started sobbing, "Madison I have something to tell you." 

"what" Madison asked weakly. Jonbuck took a deep gulp, "I've been drafted too."

Now Madison started crying, "they can't do this! First they take away Shawn, now they want you. What will happen to me, what will happen to Jenna?"

Jonbuck rubbed her head, with hot tears emerging from his now red eyes, "Madison, I need you to be strong, and no matter what happens to me, I need you to take care of Jenna, she needs her mother, please do this for me."

"okay" she answered, " But, just try to keep safe,"

"I will" Jonbuck answered, "I will"


	2. The Encuounter

Life in the Horde chapter 2  
Shawn was with five other vermin, they were outside the camp; they were scouts checking for any woodlanders to steal from. Riptongue was the leader of the small scouting party, Riptongue was a powerfully built rat, and he had pitch black fur and sharp teeth, in his paws he held a large spear, larger then the pitchfork Shawn carried. They looked around the grassy plains that they were fording in the dark night. Riptongue paused, deploying a hand signal to halt the others.

"oi look." He said pointing to the ground, "I see tracks; dere are squirrels around 'ere"  
"What do we do?" Asked a young weasel in the group,

Riptongue sneered, "idjit, I'll tell you what we do, we find dem, and rip dere guts out!"

Shawn gasped, "You mean, we have to kill them, but I thought we were just here to take supplies, not kill anyone."

Riptongue poked Shawn in the stomach with his spearbutt, "do you have a problem with that soldier?"

Shawn gulped nervously, "n-no sir"

Riptongue smiled wickedly, "good."

Riptongue , rapped out orders, "follow dose tracks, we need to find 'em!"

The small scouting group followed the tracks to a nearby wooded area; there they spied three squirrels, an adult male, an adult female, probably his wife, and a young boy.

"Anyone have a bow?" Riptongue whispered.

A young weasel handed him a bow, with one arrow notched in the string. Riptongue aimed the arrow and let it fly; the arrow buried itself in the adult male squirrel's neck. The other squirrels ran off screaming.

Riptongue yelled, "Hurry catch da other two!"

The other vermin ran off in search of the others, Shawn was alone, the others went in a different direction then he did, he looked around some very large leaves, then he saw them, two squirrels huddled up in fear.  
The adult female squirrel saw Shawn,

"Get away vermin," she said with tears coming out of her eyes, "get any closer and I won't hesitate to kill you with my bare claws,"

"Please I don't want to harm you." Shawn said, "I can help you, please just let me help."  
The female squirrel glared at him, "you can help me by curling up and dying right where you stand."

"Please let me help you." Shawn protested.

The female squirrel launched herself at Shawn, slicing his right cheek open with her claws.  
"Go to Hellgates vermin." She yelled.

"Listen" Shawn said nursing his bloodied cheek, "I'm giving you a chance to run away, please just, go, I won't send anyone to follow you, please run for your sake, just run."

She ran with her child following her," I'll trust you, but if your lying I'll kill you so painfully that you will beg me to spare you the pain by just killing you."

Shawn smiled to himself. He ran back to Riptongue,"sir I found the squirrels"  
"Where are they?" Riptongue asked

Shawn pointed to the opposite direction where the squirrels ran, "over there sir."

Riptongue looked at Shawn and smiled, "good I can tell you ran into them, by the scar on your face, Shawn we could use a good lad like you for a captain, what do you think?"

Shawn answered, "I think that would be a good idea, sir"


	3. A Death in Shawn's family

Life in the Horde Chapter 3  
Madison was feeling dreadfully ill, she had been walking for hours in the hot, sticky, and dry weather. Jenna was behind her, following her shadow. Madison had been missing her husband greatly; she had never seen him since the day he was drafted. Occasionally Shawn came to visit for a short time, but each time he came, he had some new form of injury, Riptongue had been pushing him far too hard. Finally it was time to stop moving and make camp, it was still morning but many beasts complained about the hot weather. She erected her tent swiftly and let Jenna inside it quickly. Jenna, inside the tent started playing with her dolls that Shawn had made for her; she had two mice, Mr. and Mrs. Goodymice a hedgehog named Needleback, and four very special dolls modeled after herself, Shawn, and her mother and father.

Madison was now inside the tent,  
She was holding her head, when will this pain end? Madison thought, It's just been getting worse and worse with every minute, I' m afraid that I might have something that Jenna could catch, I just hope it's not Dryditch fever, no I shouldn't think about things like that, soon every thing will be back to normal and we can all live together as one happy family.  
She paused and looked at Jenna playing happily,

She's so sweet, yet how can she live in such a terrible horde, ever since Swartt became leader, all kinds of vicious folk come here. She laid herself down on the floor, I just need to rest, and that's all, just some rest

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift off to sleep. In her dream there was flashes of light, a screaming face of a stoat, was it her son? She saw many other horrible things, like Swartt laughing evilly at the sight of a badger's corpse. The corpse was full of maggots, and hungry flies hovered above it. She awoke drenched in sweat. She panted heavily, it was now dark out, and Jenna was asleep, but someone else was in the tent

"Who's there?" she asked,

"It's just me." Answered Shawn's voice, "I'm sorry did I wake you, I was just checking on my sister to see if she is alright."

"It's okay" Madison answered, "I just need to go outside,"

She staggered herself clumsily out of the tent. Shawn followed her.  
"Shawn" she said, "I just wanted to say-"

She violently hunched her face toward the ground,  
"What's happening!" she screamed

She vomited on the grass,

"Oh Lord" she said, "please help me it hurts!"

Shawn hunched over her, "what's wrong what hurts!" he cried with hot tears springing from his eyes.

She grabbed her stomach, "h- here," she stammered.

Awakened Jenna was out of the tent, "What wrong with mummy, brother?" she said not knowing how dangerous the situation was.

"Go into the tent!" Shawn yelled trying to get Jenna away from the hideous display.

"Why?" Jenna said innocently,

"NOW!" Shawn yelled,

Jenna ran in the tent, crying.

"Please don't die." Shawn cried.

"I-I" Madison shivered for a while, and then she went limp.  
Shawn hugged her body tightly, crying.

Later that night he buried her body as quickly as possible, he used a regular rock as a gravestone.

He entered the tent, covered in mud, with his eyes blood red from tears.

"Is mummy okay?" Jenna said, not knowing her mother's fate.

"yes" Shawn had to lie, Jenna did not know about death. "She's in a better place now."


End file.
